Long Term Vision for water, Life and Environment

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3 Keys to Data for All
World Water Forum-5 Istanbul, March 20, 2009
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Overview

• 1. What does GEMS/Water do?
• 2. 3 keys to data access
• 3. Plans for the future

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4 Core Activities

• Expanding GEMStat, the global inland water
  quality database and international network.
• Undertaking research, indicator development, and
  modelling for global environmental assessment
  processes.
• Promoting data integrity (QA/QC) tools and
  resources.
• 4. Building the capacity of developing
  countries to collect and manage water quality
  information.

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Status of GEMS/Water Global Network
Africa 285 276428 1977-2008
Americas 2051 1742281 1965-2006
Asia 441 684455 1971-2008
Europe 343 943631 1978-2007
Oceania 95 355061 1979-2008
Region of Stations of Values Date Range
Totals 3215 4001856 1965-2008
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Snap Shot of Global Nitrogen Data
Note the decreases in many parts of the world,
likely due to effective policy responses. A
comprehensive global assessment would benefit
since N affects drinking water, fisheries, and
agriculture.
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Declining Pesticides
Three Chinese rivers following implementation of
a ban on HCH use.
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• Important WQ variables compared to appropriate
  guidelines results combined to produce a single
  number categorizing WQ as excellent, good, fair,
  marginal, poor.

Where F1 percentage of failed variables
(scope) F2 percentage of failed tests
(frequency) F3 amount by which failed tests
exceed guidelines (magnitude)
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There are no technical barriers to sharing data,
only institutional ones
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Key 1 Discoverability Publish Data on the
Internet
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Benefits from Being Discoverable

• More people have access
• Data have value when they are used more use
  means more value
• Broader scope for assessments
• Water authorities can view their situation in a
  wider context local to global

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Key 2 Visualization Google Earth
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Benefits from Vizualization

• See and fix bugs
• Better and faster assessments
• Better and faster decision-making

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Key 3 Interoperability

• GEMStat can talk to other online databases
• Built using open standards and open web services
• Result is flexibility to identify and fit
  services that fit particular needs
• One example is SDI-East Africa

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Plans for the Future

• Continue to fill gaps
• Integrate GEMStat with THREATS
  decision-support software
• GEMSoft for data input
• Broader visualization and analysis GIS,
  modelling

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UNEP GEMS/Water Programme
Thank You
www.gemswater.org and www.gemstat.org